First (Fantastic) Trailer for Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar

The first teaser trailer for Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s new film, hit the web yesterday. As far as teasers go, it has everything a Nolan fan (or a film fan) could want.

The teaser opens with a beautiful shot of a cornfield before launching into a collection of old NASA clips, all of which capture moments where humankind is taking a technological and historical leap forward. An epic score and a powerfully delivered monologue by Matthew McConaughey, the film’s lead, intertwine in the background.

The monologue muses on humankind’s capability to “overcome the impossible”, and it becomes clear that, thematically, humanity’s never-ending drive for innovation and progress will anchor the film. The teaser ends with McConaughey at the wheel of a pickup truck, teary-eyed, speeding away from the cornfield. Two unidentified people stand in the field, holding hands, as they look into the distance where a rocket launches.

It’s a perfectly composed teaser because it instills an intense curiosity without revealing any of the film’s plot or showing another cast member on screen. It reminds the viewer that Nolan is a filmmaker with massive talent and that, arguably, no one else working today can make the type of movies that he makes. He manages to craft films that are technologically brilliant, cerebral, and ridiculously entertaining. (The one exception may be Alfonso Cuaron who proved he could play in Nolan’s world with his newest film, Gravity).

The story of Interstellar has been kept under wraps. We only know that the movie deals with space travel, time travel, and wormholes. Based on these descriptions, people have been hoping that Interstellarwill raise the bar set by Inception. They’ve expressed hope that Interstellarwill be equally ambitious yet also serve as a return to the authenticity and inventiveness that characterized Nolan’s earlier films like Following and Memento. This teaser provides the first evidence that those hopes may be fulfilled.